Rescue volunteer onboarding checklist
Give every new volunteer the same first-day information, a named person to ask, and a clear idea of what they should not do alone.
Your policies come first. This checklist is a structure for organizing them, not a substitute for your insurance, legal, or safety requirements.
Before the first shift
- Confirm the volunteer's name, contact details, and emergency contact.
- Send the date, time, address, parking, and what to wear.
- Share the written policies the volunteer must read, and ask them to confirm they have read them.
- Confirm any age, waiver, or agreement your organization requires.
- Name the person who will meet them and where.
- Volunteer
- First-shift contact
Expectations and boundaries
- Describe what a typical shift looks like and what the volunteer is there to do.
- State what a volunteer does not do alone, such as handling a specific animal, giving medication, or speaking for the organization.
- Explain who can approve exceptions and how to ask.
- Say how to raise a concern about an animal, a person, or a process, and who will hear it.
- Tasks for the first month
- Not done alone
Safety basics
Safety rules belong to your organization and your insurer. List yours here so they are explained in the same way to everyone.
- Walk through entry and exit, animal housing areas, and any off-limits rooms.
- Explain your handling rules, protocols for bites or scratches, and who to report an incident to.
- Show where first aid supplies, cleaning supplies, and emergency contacts are kept.
- Explain how animals are identified and what to do if an animal is loose or missing.
- Incident report goes to
- Emergency contacts location
Records, photos, and privacy
- Explain what volunteers may write down, where, and who reads it.
- State your rules for photos of animals and of people, including social media.
- Explain how to treat adopter and owner information as private.
- Say where observations about an animal should be recorded so the next person sees them.
- Where observations go
- Photo rules
Access and tools
- Give the volunteer only the access they need for their tasks.
- List the accounts, schedules, or group chats they are being added to.
- Explain how to sign up for or swap shifts.
- Remove access when a volunteer leaves, and note who does that.
- Access granted
- Removed by
Review the first weeks
- Check in after the first shift and after the first month.
- Ask what was unclear and what they wish they had known.
- Adjust the tasks to fit the volunteer and the organization.
- Update this checklist with anything volunteers keep asking.
- First check-in
- Changes to the checklist
Common questions
- Does this checklist cover legal or insurance requirements?
- No. Those depend on your organization and location. Use this checklist to organize your own requirements so nothing is left out of the first conversation.
- Can volunteers fill this in themselves?
- Partly. Contact details and read-and-confirm items are good for the volunteer. Access, safety walk-throughs, and boundaries should be completed with a named staff member.
Early access, founder-led
Keep this with the animal record.
WhiskerMatch is one record per animal that intake, foster, adoption review, and public profiles share. It starts with one workflow, beside the tools you already use, and a person at your organization makes every decision.
$20/month per organization, no seat limits. This is a founder-led early access invitation with no deadline. Writing to ask a question costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Want to look first? Walk through the guided demo.